7 Comments:

That is cool, Ms Waller. It looks so good on the screen too, or the page. It seems almost a crime to write notes in the margins but then again it also seems a little wrong to see something so beautifully made not receive the adulation it deserves. I call this type of poem, a jewellery poem, in a way it fractures light, or energy through language. There is a moment in it which you have captured eternally. Because language is linear but these types of experiences exist outside of linear time, the techniques of poetry are required. You can induce the anonomatapeoic moment in the readers mind instead of merely describing it. My entire poetry manifesto. Sorry, notorious over commenter, just let me know if you would prefer I didn't.

paul, thanks for this comment and happy to have it or any, as the moments pass. i won't mind you bagging me over poems either, giving me a razz if the work is phew or stinky.

over the couple of years i've had the blog, i've become more interested in writing to please myself and feel an equal pleasure if other people get something too.

i discussed with a friend recently feeling more zen within my current approach to poetry, but sometimes it is difficult to produce in words what a silence and a blank space can show. and a lot of quiet thinking.

I would never criticise anyone else's poem in public, Ms Waller. I have done that only once when I accused someone of writing prose with linebreaks and a few words left out for poetical effect. Never again, I maintain I was right, but the effect it had was quite out of proportion to what was one comment, they were accidentally devastated. Now I simply assume I am not clever enough to understand the poets intention and so say nothing for fear of embarrassing myself. With you, however, I feel free to indulge my desire to write in a ridiculous ornate style. By the way, I would be most interested in your opinion of the piece underneath this link.

Speaking of zenning your poetry, Ms Waller, do you have a Twitter? It is a fascinating discipline and as valid as any other form of writing, in my humblest of opinions. This for instance, with all its modifiers and unnecessary arabesques would not fit into Twitter, but 'the discipline of diamonds' does.

no, i have no twitter. barely able to keep pace with the blog. many i know do manage facebook, myspace, goodreads - just not for me at this point. i have to leave some time for the notebooks and of course, life and all ...

Ahh yes, the corporeal life has its delights and temptations and time is the only true commodity. I have been reading Marcuse again. For a philosopher he has remarkably elegant prose. "Freedom is confined to free time - but free time is, quantitatively and qualitatively, the very content of life."